1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method of performing programming code changes with plain text requests.
2. Description of the Art
Companies and individuals increasingly use computers to perform a variety of tasks. Conventionally, companies purchase software to perform specific tasks such as tracking financial transactions, word processing, or creation, design and revision of web sites. Specialized knowledge and programming skills are usually required to operate and customize these programs. As computers and software grow increasingly complex, the necessary programming knowledge to operate and customize these programs grows proportionally. The cost of these programs and the cost of the personnel to implement and operate them has also grown proportionally.
Today a growing number of businesses and individuals have web sites. As information and data rapidly changes, web sites need to be constantly updated to reflect these changes. Each year businesses and individuals spend significant money to keep their web sites accurate, up-to-date, easy to use and aesthetically pleasing. Web sites use Hyper Text Markup Language, generally known as HTML, which requires specialized knowledge to program and revise.
Almost all computer programming, including web site development and updates, is performed within Integrated Development Environments (IDEs). These IDEs simplify the programming process but are still very complex to use. The user of an IDE must understand the programming language being created or revised. Most IDEs include a full pallet of software tools (even though a user rarely uses most of these tools) making the IDEs cost prohibitive and complex. Because of their complexity, significant training time is usually required. A problem with IDEs is that even if a user is familiar with the IDE, mistakes and unintentional changes can be made, yet hard to correct. The above factors cause almost any programming changes to be performed by specialized personnel.
Each year companies spend large amounts of money on information technology departments or outside consultants. In many cases, the person or department in charge of operating or revising programs or web sites rarely possesses the information that needs to be incorporated into the programming code. For example, the required information may be within another department or a multitude of departments making it difficult to communicate necessary changes. It may also be difficult to explain the information to those updating the web site. These problems cause many companies to never update their web pages until the web site needs to be completely revised.